Effectively Promote Your Business on a Tight Budget
This ‘P’ is Promotion and Publicity. Not to be confused with Marketing. Marketing deals with how you express your essence, your identity, Promotion deals with how you convey your marketing message to your target audience and Publicity is what you get when People notice your offer and talk about it; ideally, you want free Publicity! That happens when your offer is compelling enough it will create some serious buzz. If you are not making enough waves in the media, you ain’t kicking hard enough!
The fundamental assumption through all of these articles is that you want to create a solid, long term business, and that means doing things that your clients can and will agree with. Some people call this doing only White Hat marketing activities. What you need to understand is that you first have to refine your marketing and then you are to start promoting it in a way it will get noticed and publicized.
Some people think Marketing is where you reach out and try to convince someone to buy your product. This is doing it the wrong way, what you are supposed to do is inspire people to buy your product. Publicity and promotion is where you educate someone about your product and they feel inspired to contact you to know more with a view to buying. Can you imagine the different conversations from that point One conversation is where you or your telemarketers have called someone (possibly in the middle of something) and the other where they call your order processing department.
Publicity and Promotion take place once you have fixed your Marketing; it just results in a better conversation with your clients. And higher profits for longer periods.
2 When Is It Done
Every business activity you do promotes your business. Everything you do says something about the way you do business, about what you think about your customers, and about the quality of your offers. People feel how they are going to be treated by you in your Marketing, Promotional efforts and moreover in what kind of Publicity other people are giving you!
What that means is that every time people see your product or the results of your service they form an impression about your business. When they see you walk down the block to buy a coffee, or drive past on your way to another appointment – they form an impression about you and your business.
That’s important because people buy from you because of what they think is true. They don’t buy from you because you have the best widgets; they buy from you because they believe you have the best widgets. You need to consider your business message every second you are awake. Make sure everything you do and everything you say reflects a positive image for your business.
3 Your Message
Building and maintaining a successful business starts with your message being understood by your target market. That involves identifying who they are and what they have in common. That allows you to communicate with them, and here is what you need to do and why you need to do it.
Imagine a demographic that is made up of teenagers. Active, outdoor types who are never far away from a skateboard or a pair of inline skates. They have completed High School, but do not have any further education, nor do they have a trade qualification. Where would they congregate What subset of language might they use
Now imagine a demographic made up of degree qualified middle management. They are all married, with an average of 2.4 children, are members of (at least) a golf club and one other ‘social sports’ oriented club. They are never far away from their European import vehicle! Do they gather in different places to the first group And – do they use a different language Of course they do. Not all demographics are as obviously different as these two, and yet they often visit very different places and speak different languages – even though all are based on the one Mother Tongue.
Creating the right message – for example an advert – means writing it in the language of your target market, and then you have to place it where they will see or hear it. That’s why it is important to identify your customer, in detail.
4 Identify Your Customer
Identifying your customer starts with listing the attributes they have in common. Take a moment and think about your customers – are they all of a certain age group Or educational status Perhaps they share a hobby Writing down what they all have in common will help you see them more clearly. If you cannot build a single list then you can and should create two or more – and understand that this just means that your products appeal to different demographics.
If you have a single list then consider the person that those attributes describe. What are their values What are their problems, and how does your product resolve them Where do they congregate What else are they interested in Use that information to tell you what language to use in your communications, what hot buttons to push to inspire them into action, and where to put the message so that they are likely to see it.
Having multiple lists just means doing the same thing for each list. Each list may have different values or motivators, or may have different interests compared to the other lists. That just means that you now know how to tailor your message for each group so that it is more likely to be seen and acted upon.
5 What Comes After The Promise
The People section has already described the Problem, Promise, Proof concept. Here are some more details about the format of the ‘proof’ section. Using this format will enable you to write your advertising message almost as easy as 1-2-3.
Assuming that you have described the client’s biggest problem, and you have made a compelling promise, here’s how you support that promise.
Start by describing the individual benefits of your product or service, and establish a value for each of those individual benefits. Once you have established the individual values, describe the overall, compelling value that the combination of values. Often the overall value is greater than the simple sum of the parts.
Now re-list the benefits and introduce the price of each in a way that demonstrates that it is less than the value you established earlier. And revisit the ‘big ticket’ item, again establishing the price as smaller than the value.
At this point the reader may or may not believe you, so you need to add some additional credibility. What that means is some public record facts and data and of course some testimonials. Refer to that article in Newsweek or the interview with Oprah, and include some excerpts. Ask your clients for testimonials that you can use, and use them. You don’t have to include the whole letter, but certainly include the relevant part with the name and company of the person who gave the reference.
Follow that up with your guarantee. You have established the value as being higher than the price, and you have established that you can be trusted, now you remove the risk of doing business with you. Include whatever your guarantee is, and be aware that the longer your guarantee is the less likely that someone will take advantage of it. A 24 hour guarantee is not as strong as a 12 month guarantee, and it is more likely to be triggered.
Complete the message with your call to action. That just means to get people to do whatever it was that you thought of when you started creating your ad. That might be send in for a free report, sign up for a newsletter, as well as buy your product. Whatever it is, make it as simple as possible. Make it easy to do business with you. If you have established the value, reaffirmed that you can be trusted, removed all risk, and then made it easy to take the next step your results will be better than ever. I guarantee it!
When you discuss the benefits of your products you must do so from the perspective of your client, and in a way that inspires them to take action. And that means that you need to know what motivates people.
Nearly everyone knows about WII-FM. What’s In It For Me That’s only one of four motivators, and by itself it can only do a part of the job of gaining new clients. Here are the four groups of motivators, and what they will do for your business.
1. Healthy Narcissism (or What’s In It For Me)
2. Love or Sex
3. Nurturing
4. Giving Back
Motivators 1 and 2 inspire people to try your product. They make people want to buy it the first time. That’s good, and you want them to come back and keep buying from you. That’s what numbers 3 and 4 do.
What this means is that your promotional copy needs to have elements in it from the first two, and other elements from the last two. If you do that then potential customers will be inspired to try your product, and they will prefer to continue to do business with you rather than change. You don’t need all four messages, although there is no reason not to have them all if the copy reads well enough. As long as you have at least one of each pair your message will be more likely to hit the target.
When you are describing the benefits of your offerings these motivators should never be far from your mind. In what way does your product or service benefit the purchaser directly, or how does it result in them receiving positive feedback from their friends and family How does it benefit others, and what difference is it going to make to society as a whole or to the environment
Following these suggestions will result in an advert that connects with your potential clients and delivers your real USPs better than most. However there is one additional step that you must take that will result in really effective adverts. Do some research. What that means is to send out a copy of your ad to a small, select group of people you trust, and ask for their feedback.
6 Test The Copy
That doesn’t mean just asking your parents and your spouse or partner! And it doesn’t mean just asking Do you like this If you ask a general question you will get a general answer. Here’s how to get the feedback you really want.
Ask the following questions
- What emotions does the copy invoke
- What do you think of the way the idea is presented
- Does watching the videoreading the document make you want to (insert your call to action)
- Does the copy properly convey (insert your intended points, expressed in a different way to the copy)
- Is there anything you particularly like about the advert
- Is there anything you do not like
- If you could change anything, what would it be
- If I make any changes to it, may I send it back to you for another look
After you have received some positive suggestions and included them in the advert you can safely use it in your campaign, secure in the knowledge that you will hit your desired target.
You can apply the information you have learned here in another way. Use these skills to review the effectiveness of the ad when you see or hear a new one. If you believe the ad is effective, if it Grabs you then take a copy and add it to your file of Effective Advertising. Review it to identify what it was that attracted your attention; what made you want to buy. Then when you are creating your own ad, take a look at your file and take inspiration from what you consider are effective ads. Use the same constructs, the same concepts in your ad.
By now you have identified your customer, how to communicate with them and where to place your message so they will see it. It’s time to consider the ‘delivery mechanism’.
That’s just a way of delivering your message to a place at the right time for your target customer to see it.
Examples of delivering messages are by advertising in the media – print, radio and television, advertising on the internet via paid or unpaid sites, and either direct adverts or by providing a form of ‘Infomercial’. You can also send your message via postal services or courier companies, and of course there is orally, which can be either a telesales campaign or a viral message that people spread to their friends that we call word of mouth marketing.
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